Presentation programs are computer applications that display information, commonly in the form of slides. Presentation programs may include an editor for creating slides and a slide-show system for presenting the slides. Examples of presentation programs include, but are not limited to, POWERPOINT from MICROSOFT CORPORATION, and KEYNOTE from APPLE INC.
Presentation programs have been designed primarily as a tool for giving a presentation to a live audience in the same room as the presenter. For example, a computer executing the presentation program may be coupled to a large display device or a video projector. More and more frequently, however, attendees who cannot be physically present at the live location may need to view the presentation. For these remote attendees, existing solutions are generally not ideal in light of the limitations of conventional presentation programs. In a first option, the remote attendees may travel to the live presentation site. This option introduces travel costs and limits the number of possible attendees to only those who can attend the live presentation.
In a second option, the remote attendees may listen to the presentation over a telephone, either without the slides or by following a copy of the slides. In this option, the remote attendees cannot see the presenter's transitions between slides or the presenter's live actions, such as the presenter's use of a laser pointer and a mouse pointer or the presenter's real-time drawings and annotations made during the presentation. Further, the remote attendees may not be able to view animations and other multimedia. This is particularly true if the remote attendees merely have a paper copy of the slides.
In a third option, the remote attendees may utilize an existing broadcast application, which may be difficult to set up and use and may have limited functionality. In many instances, the broadcasting application is entirely different from and may not be fully compatible with the presentation program. For example, some of the functionality utilized by the presenter through the presentation program may not be broadcasted through the broadcast application. Further, if the presenter is unfamiliar with the broadcast application, the presenter may need to set up the remote presentation in advance, thereby preventing any last-minute changes to the presentation content.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.